The first therapeutic ultrasound devices, such as the SONOSTAT, were created starting in 1947. From 1968, ultrasound was used not just in physical therapy, but also in urology, where the technique was first used to destroy bladder stones.

In October 1953, Dr. Inge Edler and Dr. Carl Hellmuth Hertz of Lund University in Sweden took the first images of movements of the heart with ultrasound waves using the material testing system from Siemens. The new method, today known as echocardiography, became an essential part of cardiac diagnosis.

The Vidoson, the world’s first real-time ultrasound system, was clinically tested in the mid-1960s. The system’s real-time cross-section imaging acquisition was immediately adopted by physicians, making real-time ultrasound the most widely used imaging modality in virtually every branch of medicine.

Siemens introduced the first computer-controlled automatic real-time-scanner, the Diasonics RA-1. The system could take real-time images and compound scans. The RA-1 combined automatic image capture and digital image processing for the first time, reducing scan time considerably while taking higher resolution images.

SONOLINE 1000 was the first portable ultrasound system from Siemens. It weighed only 10 kg and could be taken along by doctors visiting patients at their homes. It was mainly used for obstetrics and gynecology and featured real-time and time-motion imaging.

ACUSON Corporation (taken over by Siemens in 2000) marketed its first ever product, the ACUSON 128 as a device for “Computed Sonography™”. Its analog/digital hybrid computer with 128 image resolution channels made automatic image quality control a reality and allowed easy software upgrades to future features.

The ultrasound device Q2000 was the first Siemens system with color Doppler technology. It made the imaging of blood flow in vessels possible for the first time without invasive peripheral angiography. The Q2000 was able to display anatomical features in black and white and blood flow in color simultaneously, thanks to a super-fast microprocessor with 500 million operations per second.

Siemens introduced SONOLINE Elegra, the first fully digital ultrasound device of the SONOLINE product line. Its digital image processing enabled the user to choose up to double the number of focus points compared to an analog ultrasound system and better signal processing which allowed the differentiation of very small changes in tissues.

The software SieScape, fully integrated in the highend ultrasound device SONOLINE Elegra, allowed users for the first time worldwide to immediately view structures and internal organs measuring up to 60 cm across with a high-resolution real-time ultrasound unit in a single image. Images were acquired with a standard probe without a position sensor, enabling the physician to obtain cross sections by simply moving the probe over the surface of the body.

Siemens introduced the first ultrasound catheter AcuNav to visualize the entire heart. Its size of 10 French enables improved access for heart applications in electrophysiology and interventional cardiology.

Siemens presented the first portable ultrasound machine for echocardiography, the ACUSON Cypress. The machine was even used to measure the effects of extreme altitude on heart and lung function during an expedition to Mount Everest in 2003.

With a new generation of ultrasound contrast media – microscopically small gas bubbles – and with the help of the CPS technology in Siemens ultrasound systems, physicians can track cancer and metastases. These micro-bubbles are injected into the patient’s vein from where they circulate around the body – and start to concentrate in characteristic patterns in suspicious areas. The agent can even highlight areas not previously detected. At this time, the new method was first used to diagnose liver cancer and other liver lesions.

A highly advanced ultrasound system, the ACUSON S2000 Automated Breast Volume Scanner obtains high-resolution volumetric images of the breast. 

Ideal for use in women with dense breast tissue, it allows the visualization of the anatomical coronal view of the breast. The semi-automated acquisition of volume images helps to reduce operator variability, producing consistent, easily reproducible images.

ACUSON SC2000 is the first echocardiography system to acquire real-time, full volume images of the heart in one heart cycle, delivering a plethora of automated measurements tools that improve the quality of care.

ACUSON SC2000 Prime Edition is one of the first to offer live full-volume color Doppler imaging of heart valve anatomy and blood-flow using a new true volume transesophageal echo (TEE) probe.

Introduced a new era in ultrasound - ACUSON Sequoia with BioAcoustic™ imaging technology that helps obtain diagnostically relevant images at depths never before thought possible.